


An Anniversary

by Activeimagination



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-11 09:28:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11145633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Activeimagination/pseuds/Activeimagination
Summary: It is Jackson's anniversary and Aaron has a visitor.





	An Anniversary

**Author's Note:**

> Saw it was Jackson's anniversary yesterday. This came into my head. I've left my alternative world from 'May to December' and the sequels to take what happened in the reveal and since into account.

An Anniversary

The sun crept in through the small space where two curtains met. On these mornings staying in bed was not an option. Aaron stretched as he swung his feet to the side of the bed. He had slept quite well and was ready to face another day. The sound of crockery being placed on the table from downstairs told him that Robert was doing breakfast. His husband was trying hard but at times that could be trying in and of itself. He looked around the room trying to block out any mental image of Robert and her in this room. Not for the first time he wondered if his feelings would fully catch up with the words he had said and meant on the night and days after he had heard the news he always felt was coming. 

Another image was beginning to come from his subconscious, blurry at first but gaining clarity by the millisecond. Him holding a glass up to the mouth of another man he loved and helping or forcing him to drink the substance that would end his suffering and his life. His stomach clinched at the thought and he took the deep breaths that he had been working on in counselling. These thoughts rarely came now but today was no ordinary day. 

In the kitchen Robert was looking at the clock, he had a day of meetings in Leeds but his mind was far from them. He knew the date it was a date that was emblazoned on a simple headstone in the cemetery. He knew that the man resting under that headstone was Aaron’s first love. The guy who helped him when he was coming out; the ordinary decent builder who fell for the angry mechanic. One of the first people to see in Aaron the qualities that Robert cherished. He shook his head, Jackson would never have hurt Aaron the way he had. For the millionth and something time he wondered why Aaron had chose to say he forgave him and when would he realise that maybe it wasn’t possible. 

oOo

‘If you’d like I was thinking I’d cook tonight’ Rob said as Aaron slurped the last of his cereal.  
‘Yeah, ok, sure’.  
‘I know…I mean I’m sure today is rough, would you like me to come before I head’  
‘I’d prefer to go myself, if that’s ok’  
‘Of course, I’m thinking around seven for dinner, that ok?’  
‘Perfect…Rob’  
‘Yeah’  
‘Nothing, see you later’.

oOo

It was peaceful in the cemetery and the sun was casting short shadows in the gravestones. He hunched on his hunkers and looked intently at the name.  
‘Hope you’re happy mate…..God, I’m trying to be…he’s a good guy, not as obviously as you, but he is good….I need to be happy, help me won’t ya’  
Aaron wiped the tears from his eyes and left a bottle cap at the base of the gravestone. He walked slowly out the gate and back towards the mill. Had he looked around he would have seen a stoutish woman getting out of a car. She noted where he had gone and then went to the gravestone of the man that would link her with Aaron for time and eternity.

oOo

Aaron was upstairs looking at a photograph of him and Jackson. He barely noticed himself but was bemused that he was smiling, that was rare those days. He winced at the clothes as if he had entered some fancy dress for your average lout. The doorbell pierced his memories.  
‘Hazel, I said, Hazel it is high time you paid your favourite bit of rough a visit although I do see you aint that rough anymore’  
‘My God’, he smiled warmly and hugged her.  
‘Nah, just a fairy godmother’.

He made tea and brought it to the couch where she was sitting as if ready to grant an audience. She had not changed. She talked in between drinking tea and eating the pastry he had given.  
‘Nice home, Aaron and’, pointing towards their wedding photo on the wall, ‘nice lad. Robert I assume, not a patch on my Jackson but he’ll do’.  
Aaron gave a non-committal grunt.  
‘Aaron, love it is time for you to be happy. I know today is tough, it always will be but that guy up there beside you might do the trick. Been a while since your last email, you were just back from you break at Her Majesty’s pleasure so fill me in, you know my life can be boring’

He told her everything. The abuse in jail, Robert’s one night stand, how he told him the truth, the big step that was, the baby, forgiveness, even how he didn’t know what to think about the baby. It flowed like a majestic river from mountain to sea.  
‘Wow, don’t know when I’ve been quiet for more than ten minutes I can tell you’.  
Aaron smiled, he had missed her.  
‘I’m sorry love. I should have visited when you were in the trial over that animal.’  
‘You were away’  
‘No excuse…I made a promise to you and Jackson…but I’m here now. Aaron life is bad sometimes, we know that you and I. We hurt people we love and they hurt us. What he did makes him an out and out pratt but if you love him he is your pratt. You are still here, he didn’t loose any teeth so I think at the very least you’re fond of him still. Hell no for you not to knock him out stone cold after that it must be love’  
‘Thanks’, he gave a wry smile.  
‘You will have to work through it slowly’  
‘I think we can but it would have been easier with no baby’  
‘I tell you what mate you’ve got a real live wire there. One time eh and baby in a carriage’  
He looked at her, these were the kind of moments when Jackson would cringe.  
‘I’m still Hazel, you eye roll aint going to stop me’.  
‘I know’  
‘The baby is innocent in all this. If Robert wants to be involved he might be, if he doesn’t he won’t be. From all I know it might be no harm if he isn’t’.  
‘What? Don’t say that’  
‘Sorry’  
‘He would be a good Dad. He knows what a not great one looks like. He would be very good. It’s just that there will be a bond between them I think that him and I will never have’  
‘Claptrap’  
‘What?’  
‘You. Are. Talking. Claptrap…..one word…Gerry. I loved Jackson, will do until my last breath but I have no bond with Gerry, none at all.’  
‘Oh’  
‘Yeah and I’m fairly sure Chas has no bond with the person who happened to be your biological father’  
‘I suppose’, he was playing with his ring.  
‘You’d be good with a baby, you know’  
‘Not this one’  
‘Aaron, you have done so much, got married, this house, the business. You are a good, good man. If you would like to you would be able. If not, you need to tell him and you two can work it out’.  
‘Hazel…I’d like you to meet Robert…we are having dinner here at seven…’

oOo

Robert was surprised with the call but was looking forward to meeting her. It would be the first time he got the chance to make a first impression on someone important in Aaron’s life and he was not going to waste it. He didn’t. The evening was lovely, stories and laughter. It was easy, the kind of evening that couples have all the time. It warmed their three hearts. 

Aaron slipped upstairs to the bathroom just before after dinner tea.  
‘You’re good at this’, she smiled.  
‘Thanks…it means a lot to him that you’re here’  
‘You are more like him than I would have thought. Two tortured souls’  
‘Yeah, I know’, Robert nodded ruefully.  
‘He will take time getting used to the baby if he does you know’  
‘I’ll do whatever he wants. I mean it he is my only priority. He’s everything to me’, he realised he sounded desperate but he needed people to believe that.  
‘Talk to him love. He is better at that now, just talk to him’. 

oOo

Soon it was time for Hazel to head off. Robert said goodbye in the kitchen area and allowed them time in the lounge.  
‘I still miss him Hazel’  
‘I know love. I’m sure he misses you too. He’s like Robert, well after a while’  
They both laughed and Aaron looked at his husband busily tidying away the clean plates from the dishwasher.  
‘He would want you to be happy. I do too. Now I know that you don’t always need someone in your life for that but it can help. That strapping handsome man in there seems like a good fit. Give him, no give yourselves the chance’. 

oOo

Robert’s head was on Aaron’s chest in bed. The sound of his husband’s heartbeat was like a comfort blanket.  
‘Rob’  
‘Yeah’  
‘I love you’  
‘I love you more’  
‘Is there hot water?’  
‘Huh” Robert was more than a little confused.  
‘Well I think we may need a shower before sleeping’ Aaron arched his eyebrow and his husband took the hint immediately.


End file.
